Sandy Spring Bank Has $95,000 Position in FirstEnergy Corp. (NYSE:FE)

Sandy Spring Bank boosted its holdings in shares of FirstEnergy Corp. (NYSE:FE) by 2,036.6% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 2,393 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after buying an additional 2,281 shares during the period. Sandy Spring Bank’s holdings in FirstEnergy were worth $95,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Balanced Wealth Group LLC raised its holdings in shares of FirstEnergy by 0.9% in the fourth quarter. Balanced Wealth Group LLC now owns 26,991 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,074,000 after buying an additional 250 shares during the last quarter. Quarry LP raised its holdings in FirstEnergy by 59.1% during the 3rd quarter. Quarry LP now owns 861 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $38,000 after purchasing an additional 320 shares during the last quarter. Brooklyn Investment Group raised its holdings in FirstEnergy by 6.7% during the 4th quarter. Brooklyn Investment Group now owns 5,146 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $205,000 after purchasing an additional 324 shares during the last quarter. Venturi Wealth Management LLC raised its holdings in FirstEnergy by 33.0% during the 4th quarter. Venturi Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,326 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $53,000 after purchasing an additional 329 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Horizon Investments LLC raised its holdings in FirstEnergy by 4.8% during the 4th quarter. Horizon Investments LLC now owns 7,290 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $287,000 after purchasing an additional 336 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 89.41% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

FE has been the subject of several recent research reports. Morgan Stanley dropped their price objective on FirstEnergy from $52.00 to $48.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday. KeyCorp dropped their price objective on FirstEnergy from $48.00 to $47.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, December 4th. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price objective on FirstEnergy from $48.00 to $41.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, February 28th. Scotiabank dropped their price objective on FirstEnergy from $50.00 to $44.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, February 28th. Finally, UBS Group boosted their target price on FirstEnergy from $41.00 to $43.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, FirstEnergy currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $45.00.

FirstEnergy Price Performance

Shares of FE opened at $39.62 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.58, a quick ratio of 0.46 and a current ratio of 0.56. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $39.95 and a 200 day simple moving average of $41.34. FirstEnergy Corp. has a 52-week low of $36.81 and a 52-week high of $44.97. The firm has a market capitalization of $22.85 billion, a PE ratio of 25.56, a P/E/G ratio of 2.07 and a beta of 0.48.

FirstEnergy (NYSE:FE) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 26th. The utilities provider reported $0.67 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.70 by ($0.03). FirstEnergy had a net margin of 6.64% and a return on equity of 11.38%. The business had revenue of $3.20 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.53 billion. Sell-side analysts predict that FirstEnergy Corp. will post 2.66 EPS for the current fiscal year.

FirstEnergy Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Sunday, June 1st. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, May 7th will be issued a $0.445 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, May 7th. This is an increase from FirstEnergy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.43. This represents a $1.78 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.49%. FirstEnergy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 104.71%.

FirstEnergy Company Profile

FirstEnergy Corp., through its subsidiaries, generates, transmits, and distributes electricity in the United States. It operates through Regulated Distribution and Regulated Transmission segments. The company owns and operates coal-fired, nuclear, hydroelectric, wind, and solar power generating facilities.